3o8 WORK ON 'MAN.' [1870. 



closely connected with the Society from the time of Captain 

 Allen Gardiner's death, and Mr. Darwin has often expressed 

 to me his conviction that it was utterly useless to send Mis- 

 sionaries to such a set of savages as the Fuegians, probably 

 the very lowest of the human race. 1 had always replied that 

 I did not believe any human beings existed too low to compre- 

 hend the simple message of the Gospel of Christ. After 

 many years, I think about 1869,* but I cannot find the letter, 

 he wrote to me that the recent accounts of the Mission proved 

 to him that he had been wrong and I right in our estimates 

 of the native character, and the possibility of doing them good 

 through Missionaries ; and he requested me to forward to the 

 Society an enclosed cheque for ;£"5, as a testimony of the 

 interest he*took in their good work. On June 6th, 1874, he 

 wrote : 'I am very glad to hear so good an account of the 

 Fuegians, and it is wonderful.' On June loth, 1879: * The 

 progress of the Fuegians is wonderful, and had it not oc- 

 curred would have been to me quite incredible.' On Janu- 

 ary 3rd, 1880 : ' Your extracts ' [from a journal] 'about the 

 Fuegians are extremely curious, and have interested me much. 

 I have often said that the progress of Japan was the greatest 

 wonder in the world, but I declare that the progress of 

 Fuegia is almost equally wonderful. On March 20th, 1881 : 

 ' The account of the Fuegians interested not only me, but all 

 my family. It is truly wonderful what you have heard from 

 Mr. Bridges about their honesty and their language. I cer- 

 tainly should have predicted that not all the Missionaries in 

 the world could have done what has been done.' On De- 

 cember ist, 1881, sending me his annual subscription to the 

 Orphanage at the Mission Station, he wrote : * Judging from 

 the Missio7tary Journal, the Mission in Tierra del Fuego 

 seems going on quite wonderfully well.' "] 



* It seems to have been in 1867. 



